Israel Considers Nuking Iran

Posted on Jan 7, 2007

The Sunday Times has learned that Israel is considering the use of tactical nuclear weapons in order to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program.

According to Israeli military sources, the plan would be implemented only if the United States refused to act militarily or analysts decided a conventional attack would be unsuccessful.

In all likelihood, Israel will not become the first nation to use nuclear weapons against another since the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

According to the Times, military analysts believe the plan was leaked in order to pressure the United States to invade, to persuade Iran to abandon its program, to soften public perception in advance of a conventional bombing, or all of the above.

Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters,” according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

“As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources.

The plans, disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad’s assessment that Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons within two years.

Everyone saying Isreal is crazy is just plain dumb. 60 years since 1/3 of all jews were wiped from the planet you think for one second there going to wait for the next hitler to rise up right in there backyard. Every country in the world will sleep alot better once Irans nuclear fantasy land is crushed. All you kids saying the world is going to rise up is again very dumb. You really think Russia or China want anything other than money from Iran? Hell no they dont want a crazy islamist with nucs who says he wants to use them. If you havent noticed Iran only has ONE ally in the entire world. Syria. But guess what they arent going to lift one finger to help Iran. They are not dumb enough to stick there neck in and have there country reduced to rubble like Iran. But in all honesty Isreal isnt going to need to do a thing. Like everyone else includiong russia and china we will all curl up near the fire with our popcorn and slippers and watch one hell of a light show as Iran is finally reduced stone ages like there flawed ideas of religion.

OF COURSE they’ve “drawn up plans”...
EVERYBODY draws up plans.
We have plans for nuking every country on the planet, what to do in case an asteroid hits and responses for little green men landing on the White House lawn and acting all Klingon on our asses.

People oppose Israel because it is a racist, apartheid state, much like South Africa was, and even like Nazi Germany was.

There have been countless UN resolutions against Israel, all of which have been ignored, and it continues to commit criminal act after criminal act, and unspeakable war-crimes. Take Lebanon for example - Last summer, apart from pretty much destroying a huge chuck of the country, Israel dropped 4,000,000 cluster bombs on the civilian population, when the ceasefire had ALREADY been agreed. 1,000,000 of those lay there unexploded, like land mines. Speaking of land mines, they never gave Lebanon the map of where they previously planted their land mines, so you can be pretty sure that more innocent lives will be lost. All this in the name of 2 IDF soldiers (captured in the hope of a prisoner exchange, as had happened before). Lebanon had 30 times the casualties of Israel in that summer conflict, and nearly 50% of those casualties were children. Israel lost mostly soldiers.

Now, I haven’t even mentioned the Palestinians, but do you really want to hear what happened to them? Well, they had a land of their own once, but it was wiped off the map by foreign invaders, and they continue to be illegally and violently occupied by Israel. Until Israel stops bulldozing houses and murdering children, frees the thousands of political prisoners, innocent civilians, and withdraws from all illegally occupied territory, there can be no justice. No justice, no peace.

Karen, you say that “this article may have been an Israeli PR piece designed simply as a ‘shot across the bow,’ a threat, not necessarily an intention.”

I agree. Let’s look at recent news events on this subject. This piece, while unattributed, clearly suggests that the Israelis are less reticent about admitting to having the weapons. Prime Minister Olmert recently had a “slip of the tongue” that could be an acknowledgment of nukes. Finally, high level US diplomats have made public comments about Israel’s arsenal. The old strategy of “no comment” simply ran it’s course as a productive diplomatic tool. They now appearing to be moving towards full disclosure for some strategic purpose (I am not privy to what that purpose might be).

This is likely just another piece of a long propaganda war to weaken Iran’s resolve on uranium enrichment. In the current political and military climate, launching a pre-emptive nuclear attack would cause greater harm to Israel’s interests than good.

The truth is that Iran is many decades away from fielding a nuclear force that is capable of detonating a bomb in Israel’s yard.

By the time they reach that point, the country will have run their oil reserves dry and have to import fuel for their president to get to the launch party in his (by then) antique Prius.

Israel is far from perfect but that is good for everyone because it performs an important function in the modern world: it is there primarily for the rest of us (e.g. Bush, islamists, jew-haters (jewish or not), non-jew-haters, Putin, China, EU, UN, Mrs Appleby next door (who thinks Israel stole her slippers because ‘they are snotty rich f*ckers and why can’t i have some of that’)... to blame someone else for our own lack of success, mistakes, and lousy behaviour. It is the perfect scapegoat because everyone hates Israel, and it takes no courage whatsoever to point the finger that way.
It is a bonding exercise for most of us. For many this nation richly deserves it’s incredibly evil reputation considering that it’s been at war with poorer people and expanding since it was ripped out of an already torn empire many decades ago (Britain, America, Australia, Japan, Ottoman Empire, Pakistani Taliban, intertribal warfare anywhere on earth, etc… does the MO sound familiar?) If the Israelis really do think they are superior to Palestinians, and everyone else, i see ample evidence of Palestinians believing themselves to be better than Israelis, and possibly the rest of the world by virtue of being down-trodden and muslim (especially better than those greedy, unspiritual, disgusting, stupid, and exploited Western hos who have no idea what’s good for them), but unfortunately for Palestine, they have less money. But hey, they’ve got one heck of a lot more friends.
The whole conflict reeks of the jealousy that arises in some people who see power and crave it for themselves, while making themselves believe their rights to power (by virtue of being down-trodden, go figure?) are better than anyone else’s. One side is as bad as the other and it doesn’t seem to matter who holds the power, the REAL little people (the generous peaceful ones) will always get thoroughly f*cked over by selfish clannish groupthink *rsheoles.
I am so sick of aggressive righteous nose-pressed-up-against-the-glass jealousy. I’m sick of hearing reasons/excuses/special pleading for people who willfully refuse to do the right thing by the world and their children out of SHEER PRIDE. I mean both sides: Israel and everyone who hates her.
It happened in 1948. Get over your hate and raise your children to love.
Oh, that’s right, you have a right to homicidal anger because somebody killed your loved one. I wonder why they killed your loved one? Because of people like you? YES.
LIKE YOU. LIKE YOU. LIKE YOU.

No, according to the translator, Iran said they wanted to see an end to ZIONISM, not Israel. Very important not to lie about these things in the face of nuclear war.

The good people of this forum do not hate Jews, or anyone else, and I’m sure I speak for most of them when I say that they want to see an end to the slaughter that racist Israel dishes out against innocent Palestinian civilians.

When Hitler finally accepted the inevitability of defeat, he ordered the total destruction of Germany to punish the people for failing him. Like Hitler, George W. Bush is a megalomaniac who sees himself as the Supreme Being. Like Hitler, he will try to take America with him when he goes down.

Though a sociopath, George W. Bush knows he has committed too many crimes to escape being tried and punished. He will do anything to prevent his humiliation, imprisonment or execution. Devoid of conscience, honor or scruples, he has no compunction about sacrificing millions to save himself.

Perhaps we havent come to that point yet, he is still the most powerful madman in the world, with the backing of millions, the plutocracy, many fascists in congress, the mass media, the Supreme Court, the military and police, but if he gets desperate, he will set the world on fire to save himself.

You’re my man, winterfire! I mean to tell you, the Israeli government and its American supporters are complete nutbags. It looks like they are ready to start a nuclear war, all right! Start working right now, there’s no time to lose. The only hope I see is mass enlightenment through the Internet. At least they can’t suppress exchange of real information here. The key is the American people. Without America Israel is nothing. We must enlighten the people! Keep on blogging!

Cut the funding to Israel immediately::: it has become a rogue state. The Israelis hace committed genocide in Lebanon, and are determined to wipe out the Palestinians. Why do you Americans
aid and abet this insanity?

One one side of the equation you have little mad man in Iran saying ‘we have to wipe Israel off eh map, and oh by the way we are enriching uranium’. On the other side of the equation you have Israel (with its previous Hallocaust memories) saying (if you believe this article) ‘Not if I wipe you out first’. And I would have to be an idiot to believe that Israel would not do it. So…the nuke game of chicken, sparkly chicken, begins.
Me..in Israels shoes…with soooooo many enmies all around…and my entire future possibly in the hands of anothe Hitler, with nukes? I’d be mad not to threaten it, and carry it out if I had to. Sorry folks, but that is life.
Welcome to what Bush really wanted….war!

The Zionist settler-state is not only endangering its own people but, by insisting that Israel speaks for all Jews, which it most certainly does not, it puts Jews in America and elsewhere at risk of being blamed for whatever crimes Israel commits. What’s needed is for the Jewish settlers and the Palestinians to sit down together for the purpose of figuring out how to bring justice to the Middle East, such that there’s peace on earth and goodwill to all living beings, with Jerusalem leading the way.

Well I see this is just another Jew hating forum.
Iran openly threatens the destruction of Israel.
Israel says it will destroy its ability to do it.
The world says no, you cannot destroy Iran’s nuclear facility because it may kill lots of Iranians.
I guess Jewish life is cheap.
Jews have no right to defend themselves. What else is new in the world of Jew Hatred.
Israel will do what it takes to survive.
Never Again, Never Again will the Jews be led to slaughter by the Jew hating world.
It is about time for the world to pay for their hate & persecution of Jews. If WW3 starts, it would be only JUSTICE that others know what annihilation REALLY feels like.

RE:  Comment #46062 by Ken on 1/07 at 8:51 am “Well, if Iran continues its assertions that it wants to destroy Israel, ... They are an unstable regime and full of radical Islamic ideas.”

RE:  Comment #46070 by Duke Nukem on 1/07 at 10:28 am  “A bunker buster detonation as more akin to a small underground nuclear test…”

>>>>>>>>> Ken is back, again & again: the Myth of Islamofascism

Duke Nukem joins him to tell us how surgical it would be. One can almost hear it followed by the common authoritarian homily: “This hurst me more than it hurst you.”

It will probably start with the typical fabricated provocation. A not too unlikely scenario is a missile strike on the USS Enterprise, or a big “suicide” bomb delivered in Jerusalem by a “Hamas” operative. It’s well known that US Special Forces have been operating inside Iran form several years and that Hamas is fully infiltrated by Mossad, indeed if not run by them.

Again the warning to one and all: If WMD go off anywhere in the world, don’t look to bin Laden, the cave, the laptop; don’t look to the Axis of Evil. Look to Cheney and Cheney’s handlers.

by Charley Reese
Scott Ritter, a former U.N. arms inspector in Iraq, has written a book, Target Iran, in which he accuses the Israeli government and its American lobby of pushing the U.S. into attacking Iran.

Ritter writes, “Let there be no doubt: If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel.” He accuses some members of the lobby of dual loyalty and urges that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee be required to register as a foreign agent.

He also blasts the Israeli lobby for its use of the Holocaust and for crying anti-Semite every time Israel is criticized. “This is a sickening trend that must be ended,” he writes.

By coincidence, an Israeli general has verified everything Ritter says. According to an article published in Today.az on Jan. 2, Israeli Brig. Gen. Oded Tira published a statement urging an all-out effort by Israel and its lobby to push a U.S. attack on Iran.

“President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran,” the general is quoted as saying. “As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and U.S. newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iran issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure.”

The general urges the Israeli lobby to turn to Hillary Clinton and other potential presidential candidates in the Democratic Party so that they support immediate action by Bush against Iran.”

I don’t know where you got your information but what I got says “casualties from an earth penetrating weapon for a typical 3rd world urban population density of 6000/km squared, the estimates imply that a 1 kt weapon would kill tens of thousands and a 100 kt weapon would kill hundreds of thousands.”

I’ll leave it to you to look up the “fall-out” from these bunker-busters.

Not so long ago the Bush admin was pushing for the inclusion of these bunker buster nukes in its war planning for Iran—understanding you cannot takeout the underground facilities without them. The military response was treats of resignation at the highest levels. Seymour Hersh reveals this in “Iran Plans” in April 17 New Yorker.

One has to wonder what the US involvement is with Israel’s announced plans. Is the Israeli plan a work around of what US planners understand will be totally unacceptable from the US?

Did the US provide Israel with these tactical nukes?

Last night on San Francisco’s KGO, host John Rothman explained to us simpletons that these are not nuclear bombs but bunker buster bombs—the protestations of a longtime Berkeley nuclear physicist notwithstanding. (Is our talk radio from even our most respected stations being driven by “think” tanks and lobbies? I think we are in trouble.)

so it should be clear to anyone who has read this article that IF israel was to use nukes they would be LOW YIELD nukes. so why the extreme headline and the picture of a fucking mushroom cloud? i didn’t think truthdig would so easily pander to the paranoid anti-semitic extreme left. but i guess when you’re trying to push such a non-story as something like this you gotta drum up hits somehow.

Israel is getting way too much money that is being siphoned away from the US taxpayer to be able to afford yet another, 59th year of non-stop wars against its neighbours. If 6 decades later they have not learned to work for a living, like the rest of the world, pack it up and return the land to its owners, the Palestinians. Now!

One thing’s for certain—this puts an end to the longstanding silence from Israel on whether it is or is not a nuclear power. It’s been more or less assumed for a long time by most people that Israel is a nuclear power, but this has never really been confirmed.

Can you say “apocolypse”? Is there anyone who truly believes that pre-emptive usage of nuclear weapons by Israel against Iran would NOT have very serious repurcussions, both for Israel and potentially other countries as well?

This article may have been an Israeli PR piece designed simply as a “shot across the bow,” a threat, not necessarily an intention.

Or, it could have been a leak by someone in Israel who is alarmed that Israel’s leaders really are planning to attack Iran. The idea that Israel is planning to use nukes might have been included simply to get people’s attention. They may be saying: Pay attention people—an Israeli attack on Iran will be a really bad thing for the world!

Whatever the case, we should not get hung up on the nuke part of this article: What should alarm people is that Israel could be given a green light by Bush to attack Iran.

The idea that Israel will attack Iran is not far-fetched, especially when you consider what Israel did in Lebanon: Israel was given and used American-made (non-nuke) bunker-busting bombs on Lebanon. There was speculation at that time that they used these big bombs on Lebanon as a test: the real target being Iran.

With no mass destruction above ground, no civilian populations getting incinerated, and minimal radioactive fallout, these weapons are not really the terrifying doomsday weapons they are made out to be. The ‘nuclear weapon’ moniker always invokes images of mushroom clouds rising in the sky…whole towns getting vaporized… little kids on swingsets getting incinerated and turning to ash while Sarah Conner watches from behind a fence.

Well, these aren’t those kind of nukes, folks. A bunker buster detonation as more akin to a small underground nuclear test, with the commensurate environmental risks, and devastating results to any undergound facilities nearby. Bad stuff, yes. Scary as Tehran having nuclear weapons of their own? Hell no.

If Israel in fact does use nuclear weapons on Iran, even if preemptively, it will cause Iran and Russia and China to have no choice but accept the truth of the United States ridiculously biased stance toward Israel. And I believe retaliate accordingly. This is getting very close to total nuclear war! Israel has never admitted having nuclear capability although most of the world knows they do. Russia has offered to assemble Iran’s nuclear reactors and ship them to Iran. Russia has recently had war games with China very close to Taiwan. This is just another escalation towards a real world war three. The time has come to put the brakes on Israel’s acting aggressively. Their fear of Iran and it’s future capablility shouldn’t be allowed to cause this possible end to mankind.

Well, if Iran continues its assertions that it wants to destroy Israel, I guess Israel has no choice but to stop them.
Iran cannot be allowed to develope nuclear weapons.
They are an unstable regime and full of radical Islamic ideas.
More power to Israel, they are saving the United States from taking action. They did the same thing in 1981 when they destroyed Iraq’s nuclear plant.
God Bless Israel.

Let’s get ready for WWIII. If the United Stated allow Iarael to attack Iran with any weapons the entire region will explode into war. No Arab or Muslim nation will allow Israel to attack Iran without major retaliation. The U.S will lose all credibility with all moderate Arab nations. Millions of lives will be lost. The world economy will colaspe after oil reaches over a hundred dollars a barrel. Russia and China will supply it’s middle east allies with weapons. The U.S should threaten to immediate cut off all funding to Isreal and do so if Isreal attacks Iran. If not we will be dealing with suicide attacks on our soil.

As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished, said one of the sources.

The most insane patients have taken over the asylum-a simple nuclear strike, a miracle cure for all that ails Israel and the Middle East—havent we had enough miracle cures; just look at Iraq-that was a cure that killed the
patient; over 700,000 Iraqis are now dead.

Bunker Buster bombs hit the earth at a high speed, and they penetrate into the ground before exploding, however, if there are chemical and biological weapons underground, an explosion could release active agents into the environment. These chemicals would kill thousands of civilians—and the radioactive fallout, could kill millions.

Bunker busters will not penetrate enough to be fully contained, so when it explodes, a large amount of radioactive dust and debris from the crater will be ejected into the air producing fallout, people will either be killed or have an increased risk of cancer.

The size of this devastation will depend on wind conditions and the size of the nuclear weapon—the number of deaths could exceed a million, and the number of people with increased cancer risks could exceed 10 million.

The Bush White House, and their lobotomized surgeons, continually implement cures, however, the results are always hopeless and fatal.

You folks do NOT get it. Bush was installed by the Supreme Court in a coup in 2000. This Supreme Court has become even more Bush-laden since that time. What makes you think that they are going to rule against him? And what makes you think that senators and representatives are going to combine forces to get a constitutional amendment passed or even to impeach this president? He deserves death, not impeachment, but he is the tip of the iceberg. The forces that created the USSR are the same that are creating our mess in the US. Yes, that is right. Universal communism is the goal, so that none of us have rights or property or the means to revolt against the oligarchy.

Who was it (Orwell?) who said, “Everyone is created equal but some are more equal than others?” Yep, that phrase encapsulates the oligarchy’s philosophy nicely.

Those of you finding comfort in the idea that 2008 turnover will take care of this nasty garbage in the white house are delusional. We have the appearance of choice, but in reality are asked to choose between two of the same. Think about it: Hillary is really a Republican, Obama stands for nothing, etc., and they have the campaign cash.

People like Pelosi are really no help. Pelosi’s daughter made a campaign documentary about Bush that was a total PR move for Bush for young people; in the end, she said she couldn’t help “liking” him. If Pelosi were really on the side of good people, she would have never let her daughter make that film. Pelosi’s money comes from drug-running, arms-dealing, nuke-mad Mossad people. That’s AIPAC. The ADL is their PR firm in the US. (And don’t call me an anti-semite!) Not all Israelis are bad, folks, but the right-wing Likud party has taken over the Israeli gov’t and the Mossad are in their pocket. Or more properly the Mossad run the Israeli gov’t.

You think your fellow Americans will wake up, stop watching TV, come to their senses, and stage a revolt? Ha. According to a Pew Center poll, Bush’s poll numbers went down primarily because a large faction of extremists are unhappy that Bush is too moderate. That’s right, too moderate. According to the report, only about 17% of us are liberal, worried about civil rights, worried about crimes against humanity, war crimes, the illegal wars being waged in our name, the loss of resources, human and otherwise, etc. We are decidedly in the minority around here. The rest of Americans are either apathetic, ignorant, pollyanish (thinks Bush means well), big-time economic or social conservatives who are in favor of all that Bush does, or, as mentioned, think Bush should go even further. So much for banding together with your neighbors.

This war has been fully described as a 100-years war (Cheney); that says it all. Cheney, by the way, recently put 94% of his 96 million investments into non-dollar-based funds (cf. Kiplinger report)—he’ll be safe when the shit hits the fan. He also has a place in Europe, as do many, many other neocons. Other examples: Richard Perle has a chateau in Provence. Michael Ladeen (architect of Iraq war and also Iran-Contra scandal) has a villa in the hills of Rome. Even Bush’s ranch in Texas is OFF THE GRID. For a powerful oil man to be off the grid tells you something. They will jump ship, my friends, and have protected their assets accordingly.

We already live in a fascist state.
What will it take for us to leave this country behind, emigrate to a better place? What are we waiting for? Another 9/11? A wider war in the Middle East (one is brewing)? Will Bush & Co kill more Americans this time to get us to go to war against Iran? Maybe just a housing bust will tip the US economy and the world away from dollars. In the meantime, expect the US to go to war with EVERY country that refuses to trade in dollars.

If Israel nuked Iran, who would nuke Israel? Pakistan? No, they are the pockets of the US. The US created the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, which in turn runs Pakistan. They are allowed to have a nuclear weapon (and have shared their largess with N. Korea and Iran) because they are supposedly on our side.

Danny Pearl died investigating the ISI links to 9/11. The ISI paid Atta $100K, which probably came from the Saudis.

Why is Iran our supposed enemy? Do they trade in Euros yet? Is it just about Israel? What is the deeper, underlying reason for this next rape of humanity? Have we gone collectively insane?

The Israeli attack plan illustrates clearly why Iran NEEDS to develop nuclear weapons ASAP. Once a state is equipped with nukes, it has the deterrent capability to defend itself from such criminal attacks.